Contents

Hi there Sannse. I can't see what I am doing wrong by aiding the transition of the Vault to its new home, so therefore, I will continue to make changes which in the majority opinion make this easier and are for the good of the two communities. As for causing harm, I have never been banned or warned for harming this wiki. In fact, that is why I am among the first people to become 'Moderators'. So I would like to ask you how I am harming the wiki exactly, as I am simply changing mention of The Vault to the Fallout Wiki to show that this is no longer the former. 19:48, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

Somehow I missed this one until I got the notification for the next message - so sorry for leaving it hanging!

There's a lot of discussion on this point, and it's probably best to keep it together on Ausir's blog post. The short version is that it may be damaging to the future of this wiki to change the name, so it's not a decision that should be made by those who are choosing to leave this wiki (or one that should be made at all right now... the situation is too new and should stabilize first!) Thanks -- sannse(help forum | blog) 21:15, November 22, 2011 (UTC)

No, changing the name doesn't affect the future of this wiki, it affects the future of Wikia, and its profit margins, just because if you lose the name, you'll lose the hits on search engines to the real Vault. Also, I didn't see this because you did reply on my talk page, but I think it is a decent compromise to keep it on the blog posts. 22:40, November 22, 2011 (UTC)

Your recent reversal of edits made to protect Paweł Ausir Dembowski's intellectual property rights as to the The Vault trademark are in violation of current United States law. Title 15, section 1125, heading c, point 1 states:

“

Subject to the principles of equity, the owner of a famous mark that is distinctive, inherently or through acquired distinctiveness, shall be entitled to an injunction against another person who, at any time after the owner’s
mark has become famous, commences use of a mark or trade name in commerce that is
likely to cause dilution by blurring or dilution by tarnishment of the famous mark, regardless of the presence or absence of actual or likely confusion, of competition, or of actual economic injury.

”

Furthermore, 15 USC 1125, heading a, point 1 states:

“

Any person who, on or in connection with any goods or services, or any container for goods, uses in commerce any word, term, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof, or any false designation of origin, false or misleading description of fact, or false or misleading representation of fact, which—
(A) is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association of such person with another person, or as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of his or her goods, services, or commercial activities by another person, or
(B) in commercial advertising or promotion, misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities, or geographic origin of his or her or another person’s goods, services, or commercial activities, shall be liable in a civil action by any person who believes that he or she is or is likely to be damaged by such act.

”

As you can clearly see, your actions constitute a deliberate attempt to cause dilution by blurring a famous trademark (The Vault), which has been made famous by Ausir, who, as the original founder of The Vault and its principal administrator, is the present owner of the trademark.

The reason is simple: the section I quote protects unregistered, but famous marks, ie. The Vault name and logo. Thus, we request that you cease injuring Ausir's exclusive rights to the trademark and rename your site to an inoffensive name. Tagaziel(call!) 15:42, November 22, 2011 (UTC)

The original fault logo also still appears to be in use on the Monobook skin. Agent c 16:37, November 22, 2011 (UTC)

I'm sorry, what? I'm not going to let him slander admins that aren't even here anymore, and I have to wonder what your problem is with Itachou that you would let him be publically insulted for... what, exactly? Because Aestune agrees with you? You're gonna let someone say whatever they want if they're on your side? I will not overturn Aestune's ban, he can wait it out. I'm also particularly insulted that you think I'm removing 'opposition'; he has as much right to an opinion on the Vault as I do, as long as he's respectful. Except, y'know, he's shown he's not.

In any event, I have no idea what the 'shut the fuck up' part was about. Was there a comment prior to Aestune's that had been deleted before? I can't be expected to ban people for comments that I haven't seen and nobody's directed me to.

In addition addition, if Aestune is indeed a sockpuppet of a previously banned user (User:Flower of Pock-Lips, in this case) then Cartman! has every right to extend the block length. This is our standard procedure for ban evasion (though our previous ban durations were actually shorter than what is written in our administration guidelines), so I'd appreciate if you did not belittle my fellow administrator as well by calling his response less than honest. NittyTok. 01:18, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

I would like to state (although you will probably claim conflict of interest) that I agree with this ban for the following reasons. Firstly the user is a known troll, who has been banned many times (on different accounts may I add, via proxies), and is currently circumventing a ban that was imposed a few month ago (so the original ban was no way influenced by current events). Additionally, with comments like this "WoWWiki moved because Blizzard wanted to control the third-party community so they could wring more cash out of their subscribers. Curse's entire business is compromising everything and everyone (single-handedly causing almost all account hacking by selling Bnet emails to hackers) to line their pockets.". You and I both know this wasn't the reasons for there move, the comment is a simply lies and defamation of character. Such comments are nothing more that flame bait. Now I can understand you wish to have them unbanned, but I can also site conflict of interest on your part in this matter, since it is the only voice in the community to speak outright for Wikia. If he was to be unbanned, the discussion would soon escalate into a free for all flame war with heated emotions (which it was heading that way already) and would not serve the interest of either party involved. In fact it would probably serve to alienate more contributors here, by allowing such things to happens. 01:19, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

I wasn't aware that his ban was indefinite when I had posted my first comment, though I stand by it. He has no right to insult anyone for the sake of his argument, and I'd gladly go through the 'supporters' comments to ban anyone that needed it as well. I haven't been paying overmuch attention to the forums, I assumed that it was being policed by essentially every other administrator anyway (and it's a looot to read). To boot, he was not banned at first because, as far as I saw, he kept his arguments more civil.

I also think it's incredibly short-sighted of you to allow someone that is insulting the community to speak as a member of the community. You have no right to let Aestune say anything if Aestune is going to use his time to insult people, regardless of whether he's arguing competently or not. Would you not also ban someone that supported staying but insulted you directly? I'm honestly very appalled in you, ma'am, that you're going to let him spew his hate just because he's supporting you in a legal-speak manner.

In Aestune's defense, I suppose, his block should be recinded to the original 2 week ban should it be found that he's not a sockpuppet. I personally have had no prior encounters with him, I would ask Crazysam10 or Kingclyde about that.

Furthermore, I can't actually seem to find the comment you mentioned. If it's been deleted, are the other admins not therefore doing their jobs? NittyTok. 01:54, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

So I'm dishonest because I removed a well known sock-puppet user who has been banned multiple times on multiple accounts to the point where the guidelines require an indefinite ban. If anything that is an insult in itself.

It's amusing how you're trying so hard to cling to the only person who was really fighting your corner despite the clear personal attacks and poor understanding of the legal documentation. For "fairness sake" we should be looking at the actual community, not people who have been cast out of it for unacceptable behaviour.

"The style here seems to frequently be less polite than I tend to feel appropriate"
Yes, as a community we're strongly opinionated about our subject, and we definitely don't bend our wiki to cater for a young audience. The problems begin when someone issues direct personal attacks. Whether you "find it appropriate" or not is ultimately irrelevant as this is how it has been since long before you decided to grace our news blog. -- 03:00, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

I have since found the comment you are referring to and have banned the poster for breaking the sites rules. Something that was actually missed by admins both departing and staying, so good faith can assume it was not an act of neglect. Obviously it got missed in the flurry of comment on the subject, also I am surprised you did bring it to the attention of anyone when you observed it, which does demonstrate and act of neglect on your part as you have admitted to being aware of the comment.

Now as for the comment deletion, currently I have left it, but I am happy to delete it also based on the site rules. But in the interest of fairness, I would also have to delete Aestune contributions that are also in violation of the rules. I will leave that choice up to you.

Now back to the ban, Aestune may not have been banned on there first edit, that is true. But, then again, was he noticed on his first contribution? Nope, he was banned when it became apparent who they where. So your logic is fundamentally flawed, in assuming that we know every single detail that goes on in this wiki (I have, in the past, found vandalism that dates back many months before it was noticed). However I fail to see how someone who is perma banned on 2 separate accounts should have a say on the community that is staying, since he would not be apart of that community based on the previous perma bans.

But if you insist that everyone should get their say right now and we should unban him because he cant wait it out. I will endeavour to unbanned every single vandal and troll, so they can have there say also (in the interests of fairness). 04:20, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

I'll post here for continuity, and as I'm replying to several people. I think this is gonna be a long one, apologies if I miss replying to any key points...

GhostAvatar: I agree that the comments about why WoWWiki moved are not true. I don't know what he's referring to with Curse, but expect that that's not true either. But I also think he had some good points (obviously I acknowledge they were in Wikia's favour). You say: "If he was to be unbanned, the discussion would soon escalate into a free for all flame war with heated emotions" - that's definitely something I'm trying to avoid, which is why I left talk page messages rather than jumping straight in to remove the ban.

Nitpicker of the Wastes: You asked: "Would you not also ban someone that supported staying but insulted you directly?" - it's unlikely that I would ban in either case. It's not difficult to find instances on Community Central of people insulting me while commenting on something... and not getting banned. I'm certainly not saying that people should be allowed to insult others, it's really important to me that disagreements stay polite, but it's also important that people get their say. That balance can be a tricky one for sure.

I tried to have a quick look on the sockpuppet question, but there are no checkuser results for Flower of Pock-Lips - he edited too long ago (I checked on all wikis).

Cartman: I did not call you dishonest, I said I felt the other block reason was more honest. I'm not trying to be nitpicky here (no pun intended ;) but am trying to keep things calm while speaking out if I feel problematic decisions are being made.

You quoted my comment about the tone here. That was an observation, not something that I expect to change. Every wiki has it's style, and I'm used to adapting to that. Of course I have preferences, but I'm obviously not here to talk about the wiki's style... I'm here to try and look after this wiki through this change.

GhostAvatar (again): I'm trying to work with the norms of this community, which seem to be more accepting of harsh comments than many wikis. I'm obviously in a place where I can be told off by Cartman for commenting on the wiki's tone being impolite at times, and told off by you for not commenting on the tone being impolite ;) That comment stood out to me, but I accepted the (apparent) decision to let it stand. It was only when that was in contrast to a later block, that I spoke about it.

As I said above, I wasn't able to find anything to clarify the socking issue (in either direction), and obviously don't know the history that lead you to believe this is the same person.

A general comment to all: I've had to back off from the detailed discussions of law - I'm not a lawyer, and don't want to say anything on behalf of Wikia that's not accurate. But I am still reading and will continue to comment where I can, and to be available for questions and other needs. -- sannse(help forum | blog) 05:05, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

I think you misunderstand Kastera, I meant that I used staff tools (checkuser and others) to look at Flower of the Pock-Lips and Aestune, and didn't get results to show anything either way. I wasn't aware of the other account, so will also look at that, thank you for pointing it out -- sannse(help forum | blog) 06:39, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for understanding my position then, ma'am. 'm still particularly moved by your support for him, and not in a good way, but I assume that this does mean that the 2 week ban will remain in place, as well as the indefinite ban should the puppetry follow through. NittyTok. 05:26, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

I need to talk to Jen and others about this situation in the morning, Nitpicker (if that's OK as a short version of your name), but agree with leaving it in place until then. -- sannse(help forum | blog) 06:39, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

"I'm obviously in a place where I can be told off by Cartman for commenting on the wiki's tone being impolite at times, and told off by you for not commenting on the tone being impolite"

I'm referring to the harsh tone, he's referring to the direct insults. Those are two very different things here and you can only get in trouble for one of them. -- 17:38, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

Cartman: As I said, I'm trying to respect the norms of this community, and so was contrasting the different reactions (at that time, and I acknowledge any single comment can be missed) rather than trying to direct the general admin choices on moderating the wiki.

Nitpicker: I've talked more to people here. As I said above, the main concern is that it seems that this specific person was shut down for comments of a similar kind to those made in the other direction. I started going through the comments in detail, to compare things like "childish and pathetic" vs "not quality at all"... but then felt that would be escalating the argument rather than helping it. I think it's fair to say that there are insults flying at Wikia, and at Ausir and Curse, and at others... and that if anyone is to be banned for those, their overall position shouldn't be a factor either way.

I checked the other account mentioned above for sockpuppets, and again it's too old for any results to show. I have no way of knowing for sure if this is a returning user, but would like that to be clearer before that's used to ban. You suggested removing the infinite part of the ban, and that seems fair. I'd also ask that you reconsider the overall block, or possibly meet me part way and reduce it to one week. Thanks for listening -- sannse(help forum | blog) 20:21, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

┌────────────────┘ I'd like to note that the major reason for suspicion, mine at least, was the way he typed. This might not be an all-conclusive way to weed out sock puppetry, but it's proven useful in the past. All people have a specific way/style of typing (me included), and if you encounter the same style multiple times, in the same type of argument, with the same bias, with the same use of language and lingual quirks, alarm bells start ringing. One of our most reoccurring sock puppets, the esteemed TezzlaPollyon Rollerskates, has returned under these and many other accounts during the last 6 months. Every time he has been recognised by his way of typing, and we later had this confirmed by other means.

What I'm getting to, I guess, is that his style of writing warrants major suspicion about sock puppetry, as Lugiatm was also identified as Flowers by style of writing. The ban isn't only for his casual slandering of Itachou, it's for this, almost certain, case of sock puppetry. Hugs "Say 'ello to my little friend!"

Half way is between indefinite and none is a week. Hmm...

It should be noted that even if an IP check was conducted, it wouldn't be conclusive. For him to have the ability to comment when he has been banned indefinitely before he would need to use a proxy. -- 21:14, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

Scarface11235: Yes, that can be useful and necessary in working out who is a sock. Of course, I've also seen it backfire... Back in the early days of Wikipedia, we had a community member who was banned by Jimmy for repeated trolling (iirc, the first real ban - outside of basic vandalism and short-term blocks). For a long time after that everyone who argued excessively was assumed to be this user, and I know that innocent people got caught up in that. I want to be sure that the natural strong feelings around this fork are not affecting the identification of the user here.

GuardianOfTheWastes: Half way between Nitpicker's ban and my request to remove it, yes.

Cartman: Of course. I do a large number of checks around wikia, and use other tools to get extra information that can help, and am sadly aware of the limitations. In some cases (but not all) we can see details that will show a likely match even if they are using a proxy (or even if they are using open proxies). But in others, there's nothing to show either way. And, of course, there's always the "my brother did it" excuse to confuse the issue ;) -- sannse(help forum | blog) 00:20, November 24, 2011 (UTC)

As I mentioned previously, it would probably help to ask Kingclyde and Crazysam10, they've had more contact (or at least more history) with Aestune than I or Cartman!, as far as I can tell. NittyTok. 01:35, November 24, 2011 (UTC)

I'd like to quote Meighan of Wiki staff on this

“

There will always be people that want to cause problems, and that is their only reason for visiting a wiki. Being blocked doesn't always deter them.

A lot of times it's obvious that they are the same users because the IP addresses or account names will be similar. Other vandals and trolls make more of an effort to hide what they are doing. IP addresses and user names will not have anything in common.

In either case, there is something in common: the edits they make. It is very hard for people to completely change their behavior and manners, so the more they vandalize and post troll comments, the easier it becomes to see patterns in their edits. Some of the patterns are immediately apparent, such as names or phrases they repeatedly use. Other patterns take a little longer to figure out.

”— Meighan

In these cases when there's no way of knowing certainly, the better of the community must be put first, even though that might tread on the individual. All of us that has had interaction with this man is 100% certain that, yes, this is Flowers/Lugiatm. This is a case of "better safe than sorry", in favour of the community. And, as Nitty has said twice now, I'd recommend asking Clyde or Sam on this, as they've had the most interaction with Aestune. Hugs "Say 'ello to my little friend!"

Scarface: I agree completely with what Meighan said, and said similar above "that can be useful and necessary in working out who is a sock". It's also true that it can backfire. At the moment, I'm leaving this to Nitty, so haven't contacted anyone else. -- sannse(help forum | blog) 23:07, November 25, 2011 (UTC)

I reviewed the ban and cannot see too many actual similarities to Flowers. Flowers attacked the wiki and wanted all of us admins to be "rotated out". This person is really just arguing the whole name thing. It appears he/she was taking sides but that in a way makes the ban look biased. I will lower the ban to a week (from today) and leave a note on the page. Insulting editors should not create a perm ban. And it does not appear to be a sock puppet account.--Kingclyde 22:40, November 30, 2011 (UTC)

I just reinstated the indefinite ban on Aestune. Below is what I wrote on the talk page and what he/she responded with. My final response is included. I wish this could have been worked out but I feel that this person is only out to damage the wikia. As one of the remaining admins it is my opinion that we do not need someone of this character to be causing trouble during this transitional phase of this wikia. Now that I have spent more time reviewing this persons edits and the response to my note, I have determined that this very well may be "Lugiatm" or "Flowers Pock of Lips". These two users were one in the same. We could not determine the sock puppet (i.e. that these were the same person) until he slipped up in chat and admitted it. To have someone who blatantly bad mouths admins and other editors in general freely is not beneficial to this wikia. My decision on the reinstatement of the ban stands. Please see below for the "discussion" we had. Thanks.--Kingclyde 10:56, December 1, 2011 (UTC)

I have shortened your ban

To one week after reviewing the data at hand. You were indeed quite offensive to several admins and other users. This wikia is used to help people with the Fallout games, not to be made a place that is hostile. Name calling and other rude behavior will not be tolerated and a further ban will be invoked. Please do not force my hand on this matter. Thanks.--Kingclyde 22:45, November 30, 2011 (UTC)

A most ungracious parting shot given you are being compelled to shorten a ban that was wholly unjustified in the first place. You say "don't force my hand" but what you really mean is you don't want to be put on the spot. You guys are on the way out - let's leave it at that. Aestune 10:05, December 1, 2011 (UTC)

Ban has been reinstated to indefinite. You are clearly here to stir trouble. We are in a transitional state and do not need someone such as yourself causing trouble. I gave you the benefit of the doubt and here you are insulting the editors yet again (the reason for the ban). Sorry to say, but you are banned.--Kingclyde 10:47, December 1, 2011 (UTC)

That's great :) If there doesn't seem to be the right person yet, then it can definitely wait. But if someone looks right and is keen on helping this wiki to continue to flourish... that would be best. --- sannse(help forum | blog) 01:18, December 1, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the response on the Forum:Continuity of Operations. Porter and GhostAvatar are gone and were without someone who can work with CSS and JavaScript. Also, I can't recall anyone staying who's good with templates and it seems we don't have anyone anymore who can operate a bot. I've done a lot of work here, but my interests were in other fields like edits, maintenance en images. Jspoel 19:27, December 1, 2011 (UTC)

Mine too :) I can manage some css and templates, but there are definitely people on the Support Team a lot better than me. So just let us know what you need -- sannse(help forum | blog) 01:01, December 2, 2011 (UTC)

The following poll has finished. I appears that the community has agreed to promote me to bc. As far as I know you or another staff member can do it. I look forward to your response thanks.--Kingclyde 21:01, December 7, 2011 (UTC)

Congratulations :) This is a really good step towards the future. Please let me or Jen know if there is anything you need from us to help you in this role. -- sannse(help forum | blog) 23:25, December 7, 2011 (UTC)

The poll for the name change has concluded. The new name that the community came up with is "Nukapedia:Fallout Wiki" thus replacing "The Vault:Fallout Wiki". I think it is in the staffs hands from here. I need to know how this will effect all of the name spaces and templates. I'm not sure how bots work so any help would be appreciated.--Kingclyde 03:48, January 2, 2012 (UTC)

Hi Kingclyde. We can definitely help with any botting needed, although I suspect it probably won't be needed much. We can change the namespace from our end, and set up a redirect so that old links work. The logo is an easy change (In case it wasn't clear, I'm happy for you to change the temp one I uploaded now), and we'll need to look at what other places use the old name. I'm happy to get together with you, Jspoelstra and anyone else needed to work out the details -- sannse(help forum | blog) 01:46, January 4, 2012 (UTC)

The new logo looks good. Let's go ahead and begin the name space changes. Thanks!--Kingclyde 20:43, January 5, 2012 (UTC)

I was curious as to how to prevent people from commenting on a blog post. I have protected the page, and went under edit and unchecked the comment box and it is still open for replies. Any help would be great. I don't want to delete the page.--Kingclyde 21:02, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

Unchecking the comment box should have worked :-/

I just tried on a test blog post, and everything seemed fine... so I checked the box, saved, then unchecked and re-saved on TrailerParkApe's blog post (it looked from your edits as though that was the one you were trying to lock - apologies if I got that wrong!) Re-saving that way seems to have fixed it, but please let me know if this happens again. Sorry for the problem -- sannse(help forum | blog) 23:18, January 18, 2012 (UTC)

Well hello, Sannse. You dropped in at a convenient time. We are having a small problem with the location infobox, I asked Grunny some time ago but he doesn't seem to have found time yet. It's taking a bit too long so I asked a fellow admin, and he may ask Porter21 again, who undoubtedly can fix it. I have more things for Grunny, I was planning to ask him after he had taken care of this issue. I'll probably send him a post one of these days or maybe you can ask how he's doing. And we haven taken a blow with the split, but I'm glad to tell you we've recovered pretty well. We've been struggling for 2 months with the new name and logo, which was absorbing way too much of this wiki. After that, in the past few weeks, things have settled down, people have found their place again and we even have appointed a few new dedicated admins. I would even say activity (editing/blogs/polls) has increased compared to just before the split. And it turns out we still have a healthy community, most people still like it here I think. So things are looking good. Jspoel 22:22, February 5, 2012 (UTC)

Hi, it's great to hear things are going well :) especially that you have new admins - they are such an important aspect of a community, of course. I've pinged Grunny about the infoboxes. He's not online at the moment (he's on Aussie time, so might be around a bit later). Hopefully he'll be able to help soon.

Btw, I've heard that MediaWiki are planning to introduce a whole new way of creating templates in the future (although they will have to figure out a way to make the old way compatible or automatically replaced). Hopefully it will let people do complex things in a much more sensible and sustainable way. Should be good! -- sannse(help forum | blog) 03:43, February 7, 2012 (UTC)

True, the new admins are important. They make up for a big part of the wiki's maintenance, created content and care for the wiki, making sure no bad things happen to it. And that new way of creating templates is interesting, so if there's news about that, let us now. For now, I'll attend the seminar on Friday and asked other admins/interested users to do the same. Jspoel 22:39, February 7, 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, now I need to learn how to make my own bot! Any tips?--Kingclyde 09:32, March 3, 2012 (UTC)

Not something I have a clue about I'm afraid. I've used AWB, but that's not a real bot. I think a lot of people use Pywikipediabot or a variation, and there are likely others you can adapt out there too. You might be able to find help on the Community Central forums, there are a lot of people who visit there that know this stuff. Good luck! -- sannse(help forum | blog) 19:12, March 4, 2012 (UTC)

Hi Sannse,
I'm in the process of setting up a mentoring project for new users. I was wondering if you'd known of any other wikis that had looked into this sort of thing and implemented it successfully, that I can browse inspiration. Agent c 00:35, March 18, 2012 (UTC)

You must save me from the abuse of the crew in the fallout wikia!! Edit

Hello Sanse I to have you help due to the fact that I am having the opprssion of the rouge administrators of the fallout wikia Leimegril and GroxBoodlien and the manager of the fallout wikia that has allied with the rouges Joelspra. It all started when the other users at the thread here http://fallout.wikia.com/index.php?title=User_blog:Agent_c/Nukapedia_News_Digest_-_11_March&page=2#article-comments wanted to talk about and dowload the wasteland game 1 from the internet. The game is not of the pirate bacause it is very ancient and is not on the shop any more. But the user Agetc made the link removed and discussed with the other user. The Limegirl abused the powers and made the discussion shut unilaterally because she had the objective the feel good by means of the abuse of the users. I reported the abuse to the fallout wikia manager Joelspts but he subsequantly allied with the rouge administrators and conspired with the GraxoBoldine to prevent me from speaking. I was banned and made the gag so that I was prevented from repling and defend the users and I self from the abuse and the rouges. I came to reply but found that I had incurred the ban, and I was forced to make the travel of the kilometer to the house of the friend who was not opressed. I know they will now try to use the lophole and ban the friend as well because of the evasion of the ban, but I am desseprate that you as owner of the wikia will save me and understand I had no choice if I were to fight the opress. You must know that if the users are sufferening becuase the administraros and the managers are making the abuse for the purpose of the fun then the users will stop the visit on the wikias. I am deseperate for the Sannse to save me from the abuse and I hope I do not speak to the dead ear!!

--Юрий Карлов (Yuri Karlov)--

I have responded to it here, Sannse. If you feel you should add something to it, you're free to do so of course. Jspoel 15:52, March 18, 2012 (UTC)

Yuri the link was removed as obtaining "wasteland" from an abandonware site is against the law. When you create something you gain "copyright" over this, in most countries this is automatic; if you've ever written a diary or taken a photo, you have copyright over this for a set period, usually several decades. This mean you, and only you (unless you give the copyright to someone else) gets to decide who can make a copy of your work. You can sell it, give it away or do nothing at all with it, it's *completely* up to you.

Wasteland is copyrighted, given Brian Fargo's statements, I believe the current copyright owner to be Electronic Arts. This means you can only make a copy if you have EAs permission. EA can choose to sell it, give it away, or do nothing with it. If EA choose to do nothing with it, you can't just take it. You can only take things without the copyright owners permission when copyright is over - wasteland will not be out of copyright for a very long time.

Taking software without permission in most countries is illegal - it is piracy. Because the rules of this site do not allow discussion on how to do illegal things, we have to censor these discussions. You are not being oppressed, you agreed to those rules when you first posted

I hope this makes it clear to you why I had to get that link removed, and why the discussion had to be closed. I don't like not being able to get wasteland myself - I want EA to sell it or give it away, but it's their choice to make. Agent c 17:55, March 18, 2012 (UTC)

I'm just getting back from a trip away... but obviously my answer is the same as it would have been if I'd been around on the 18th... this is totally an admin issue, and I fully support whatever decisions Jspoelstra and the other admins made. -- sannse(help forum | blog) 16:30, March 21, 2012 (UTC)

Hi Sannse. Sorry to bother you, but a user noticed that in the desktop taskbar for chat, it still reads "The Vault". I have a screenshot . -SigmaDelta54(Talk) 19:26, March 27, 2012 (UTC)

That's odd... I can't see where that's pulling from. I checked the sitename, and that's set correctly, and I can't see any relevant mentions of "the vault" in the system messages, so I'm confused. Possibly someone else will be able to see it in that list and an admin can fix it. If not, let me know, and I'll try and find out more from a techy type here -- sannse(help forum | blog) 05:34, March 29, 2012 (UTC)

I searched all of system messages and the only place I could find "vault" and "chat" was in the common.js. Porter21 has a fix there for the chat link, but my knowledge is not at a level where I know exactly what that does or if that's the problem. Maybe Grunny can take a look at it? I'll ask a few questions and see if I can get to the root of the issue. The Gunny 20:11, March 29, 2012 (UTC)

Taken a look there myself. Must be the common.js I think. I'll send him a post about it. He's converted all the person infoboxes btw, I'm reviewing them at the moment. Jspoel 21:00, March 29, 2012 (UTC)

I asked GhostAvatar about that common.js. The section where I found "vault" and "chat" doesn't seem to have anything to do with the chat window title. It's for auto-opening chat. I looked some more and found nothing. I am at the end of my meager capabilities. The Gunny 21:05, March 29, 2012 (UTC)

I've pinged Grunny too. I'm almost certain it's some sort of custom tweak, because the only variable that it might have been pulling from is definitely set right... but it's also possible I'm missing something. Hopefully Grunny can see more than me :) -- sannse(help forum | blog) 20:09, March 30, 2012 (UTC)

Hello I'm looking to set up an Afrikaans language version of Nukapedia and wondered if you could help me with the set up an what I would need to do please? Thanks The Australian Kiwi 19:21, March 29, 2012 (UTC)

It's easy :) Just click that "Start a wiki" button up there, and select "change" (next to "Your wiki will be in English") to show the language dropdown. You will see the form say that the wiki already exists, until you choose your language.

It's best to ask this community (and other active "Nukapedias") if they mind you using that specific name for your wiki... and you will need their agreement if you want interlanguage links set up between wikis. Otherwise, you are good to go :) -- sannse(help forum | blog) 20:19, March 30, 2012 (UTC)

Hi Sannse, how you've been? Hope ok. Things are going well here too, the drama seems to have ended and the the attention is back to editing again. I have a question: our navmenu has changed overnight to a standard menu instead of our customized one, without someone having edited the mediawiki page. Do you know how that's possible and how it can be changed back again? Jspoel 14:03, April 22, 2012 (UTC)

Never mind, Sannse. Somehow it changed back all by itself again. Jspoel 15:05, April 22, 2012 (UTC)

Hey Sannse. Seems we have a small problem here with the recent earned badges. Since 2 weeks or so they are not showing anymore on the Leaderboard page (right column). Do you know more of it? Jspoel 20:48, May 1, 2012 (UTC)

A user notified me yesterday about a problem with quotes clipping the infobox. With Internet Explorer (9) there's no problem (I use that), but when using Chrome (and maybe other browsers) the quote is moving to the right and clipping right through the infobox. I thought maybe it has to do with your recent update which modified the search bar (past wednesday I think). Can you take a look at it or pass the information on to Wikia's tech guys? Jspoel 15:57, May 19, 2012 (UTC)

It's working properly again, Sannse. Porter over at The Vault fixed it there and let us use it here too. Jspoel 17:15, May 24, 2012 (UTC)

Anyway, I found an error. The templates (I believe they are templates) on the top (Entertainment, Video Games, Lifestyle) - well, the Video Games link is not right, it leads to here. Thank you for your time. EnergyX∞ 19:20, August 10, 2012 (UTC)

Hi, possibly it was fixed already, it's working for me. I checked all the other links in Video Games too, just to be sure.... everything seems fine. Are you still seeing the problem? Thanks -- sannse(help forum | blog) 18:29, August 13, 2012 (UTC)

Oh, I see. It must be just my computer - darn thing has so much bugs I should just clean it up. Okay, thank you for letting me know everything is okay. EnergyX∞ 19:43, August 13, 2012 (UTC)

I have seen the "commercial" of this and other wikis. However, the issue is that on the Top contributors (when one sees the commercial) are mostly inactive admins. Can something be done about it? EnergyX∞ 20:59, September 2, 2012 (UTC)

I understand they are going to fiddle with that. It's a problem seen on various wikis, so they are talking about whether/how to put in filters for activity (and also a couple of other things, like bots). It's still a very new feature, so the people working on it are watching out for things like that to adjust -- sannse(help forum | blog) 16:54, September 4, 2012 (UTC)

Hi there Sannse. A fellow admin and myself were having a discussion. We were concerned about the title of our promotion spot. We aren't the "Nukapedia Wiki", we are the Fallout Wiki, just with that as a title. If it would be possible, we would prefer to change it to "Fallout Wiki". Thank you, and I attached the image for viewing purposes. -- 07:34, October 27, 2012 (UTC)

Hi TwoBearsHigh-Fiving. This is something you can change. Just go to Special:Promote, and you can change the headline, the text or the image. It won't show immediately, but should update reasonably quickly. If you use Monobook as your skin, you will have to switch to Wikia skin for this, or try using this link. Let me know if you need any help (and sorry for the slow reply, busy weekend :) -- sannse(help forum | blog) 16:30, October 29, 2012 (UTC)

I was wondering what it takes to get checkuser rights. I know J has them due to his crazy high edit count but he is hardly ever in chat and that is where we really need it. I have a person in mind who is a responsible person and I would like to discuss the matter with you sometime. Please let me know what you think. Thanks.--Kingclyde (talk) 22:44, November 16, 2012 (UTC)

It was more that he got them for a few reasons and his crazy high edit count ;) And yes, it's best for any wiki to have two or three checkusers, it helps in discussing complicated cases. So if you can get together with Jspoelstra and others to decide who to recommend, that will be great. We'll look at who you suggest, and hopefully approve them. Special:Contact is the best way to contact us once you've chosen :) -- sannse(help forum | blog) 23:41, November 16, 2012 (UTC)

I sent off an email to Jspoelstra. My recommendations were going to be myself and The Gunny. Mainly due to me have the 4 wikis and being in chat alot and Gunny is in chat all of the time and collects chat logs. Gunny by far has in my opinion the best position for this but I'll let you know what J says. Thanks.--Kingclyde (talk) 00:17, November 17, 2012 (UTC)

I can confirm The Gunny has easily the best papers for getting checkuser rights. He is also a bureaucrat, online every day and I see him in chat all the time. On top of that he's delivering high quality edits with his work on templates, has great community sense and demonstrates constant care and commitment for this wiki. So by all means I recommend The Gunny as a fellow check user rights member. And I read you would consider 3 people for check user rights on one wiki. Then I can also support Kingclyde who's in chat a lot. And beyond that, he stepped up as the leader when it really mattered, after the split a year ago. That may count for something when you decide if he should receive these additional rights as well.

As you suggest, I will ask Kingclyde to send this request with my recommendation included, to Special:Contact after which we will await the result. Jspoel 01:46, November 17, 2012 (UTC)

I'll be in chat from now (~2AM UTC) for the next couple of hours. Otherwise I'll be back on again tomorrow from around 9pm UTC. The Gunny 01:56, November 28, 2012 (UTC)

Great, thanks :) I'll try and catch you after 9. I'm also on Skype all day, so if you want to add me there (sannsec) then we can text-chat pretty much any time. It's just to go over some checkuser stuff, and then I can add your rights. Thanks -- sannse(help forum | blog) 17:19, November 28, 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, but I haven't taken the plunge on Skype yet:P You know, old dogs, new tricks and whatnot. I will be around chat this afternoon, though. Look forward to hearing from you. The Gunny 20:23, November 28, 2012 (UTC)

Howdy Sannse. We've started a discussion about affiliate wikis and would like some clarification on Wikia's policy about linking to non-Wikia wikis before that part of the discussion goes any further. If you can, would you please comment on that at this forum. Thanks, The Gunny 02:04, March 17, 2013 (UTC)

We have a problem with the file Dumper Truck.png. When it's deleted it stays in the unused files and isn't removed when Wikia recaches. It's already there for months now. Is there something Wikia can do to remove this file (purging)? Jspoel 17:31, March 17, 2013 (UTC)

We tried a purge from our end, and it's not helped. So it seems it needs something deeper kicked. I'll ask one of my more techy colleagues to have a look and file a ticket for the engineers. And sorry for the slowness for this one too :) -- sannse(help forum | blog) 16:39, March 21, 2013 (UTC)

Alright, message received. I hope the tech guys can get it done. Jspoel 16:43, March 21, 2013 (UTC)

Hi Sannse. How have you been? I was looking at this top wikis list the other day and noticed that under the admins for the Fallout wiki Ausir and a user named "Dotz" is listed following our three current bureaucrats. As I'm sure you know neither of those two users are still active on our site. I think it would be preferable if some folks who have stuck around and worked a lot on the wiki have their avatars/names displayed there. Is there a way to change it? --Skire (talk) 01:13, July 10, 2013 (UTC)

Gunny has explained this to me. Sorry for the bother! --Skire (talk) 02:31, July 10, 2013 (UTC)

No problem :) I'd prefer it to show the admins with the most recent edits, but that query may slow things down. We'll have to see what the techy guys say :) -- sannse(help forum | blog) 17:27, July 10, 2013 (UTC)

I'm checking the WAM score almost on a daily basis and for weeks now (maybe even from the beginning of the WAM-score) Ausir and Dotz are always the 4th and 5th avatar, it never changes. Those users aren't active anymore here for over a year, can you change these avatars to active admins? Jspoel 01:08, July 14, 2013 (UTC)

And there's still the unresolved issue of the dumper truck unused file from the topic above this one Jspoel 01:35, July 14, 2013 (UTC)

The work on WAM has been slow, partly because there's been a lot of discussion on exactly what the best way to choose the visible admins, and what effects each way will have on caching and on pageload times. I don't have any eta on that being completed, but I do know it's still very much an active ticket (the previous criteria were oldest admin first, and we agree that's not ideal)

I've dug out the ticket about the Dump Truck image, and given that a kick. It's still not in the highest priority group I'm afraid, but hopefully the bump will help. -- sannse(help forum | blog) 19:16, July 15, 2013 (UTC)

Sannse, can you replace the current "From the Community" link on the Wikia's Video Games page to our Critter Cup into Agent c's newest blog? The one featured right now is outdated for almost a month now. Thanks in advance. Jspoel 19:10, August 13, 2013 (UTC)

Hi Jspoelstra, I've passed this on to Peter, who looks after that page. Hopefully he'll get it updated shortly -- sannse(help forum | blog) 17:33, August 14, 2013 (UTC)

(←) Sannse, we've progressed to the 2nd semi-final. Can you ask Peter to put this blog up on the Video Games main page? Traffic has slowed down and our Fallout wiki could use this bit of promotion. Jspoel 10:56, October 2, 2013 (UTC)

Thanks and I already see something on the Video Games page. But it's not the right one, it's an old final that dates from August from the Critter Cup. What I asked was for a second semi final blog in the Tag Team challenge, which was created by Agent c today. Jspoel 22:55, October 2, 2013 (UTC)

Oops! That should be fixed in a moment. User:JAlbor is looking after that page at the moment, rather than Peter, and is making the change now. If it would be easier, you could contact him directly for changes. Although you are welcome to keep pinging me instead if that's what you prefer of course -- sannse(help forum | blog) 23:37, October 2, 2013 (UTC)

Hi Sannse. I've noticed that since a few days, maybe even a week, that when you enter something in the search box, it usually gives a redirect as the top entry. For example Pre-War Outfit instead of Pre-War outfit (so outfit lowercapped which is the actual page). Did you change something? It was good before; search terms always led to the actual page. So this is a change for the worse. Can your tech team look at it? Jspoel 22:43, September 1, 2013 (UTC)

I type Merc out and get two results with Outfit (uppercap O). It should all be with lowercap o. So Merc outfit, Merc outfit (Fallout 3) and Merc outfit (Fallout: New Vegas). It was good before, but since 2 weeks or so it's off. Jspoel 19:21, September 3, 2013 (UTC)

Hi there. Sannse asked me to pop in because I help with search issues. It looks like you are talking about the search suggest, as opposed to the search results correct? Our search suggestions are set to provide the most linked results, based on the assumption that the page with the most links will be the more correct option. In this case, it would seem that "Merc Outfit" is linked to more than "merc outfit" or "Merc outfit (Fallout: New Vegas). This is definitely something we will be working on improving in the near future, and I thank you for your input which I will share with our search team going forward. Best, --semanticdrifter(help forum | blog) 22:03, September 3, 2013 (UTC)

So maybe the quick solution is to run a bot fixing some of the redirects? I'm guessing you have about 20 people here with the skills to do that ;) -- sannse(help forum | blog) 18:33, September 4, 2013 (UTC)

Hopefully J will let me get on this one. I haven't let BearBot out of his cage in awhile. --TwoBearsHigh-Fiving 18:37, September 4, 2013 (UTC)